♦ This week’s news in brief ♦
A compact weekly digest of Dabanga Sudan’s news highlights from Darfur and Sudan
A compact weekly digest of Dabanga Sudan's news highlights from Darfur and Sudan
♦ Demonstrator dead, many injured as Sudan forces quell Khartoum march
February 19 – 2019 KHARTOUM Violently dispersed protests in the Sudanese capital on Sunday caused many wounded people, and reportedly the death of a 62-year-old man who choked on the tear gas used by security forces. Starting today, a series of new protests are planned throughout Sudan, to be concluded on Thursday with the Sudan Unity March towards the presidential palace in Khartoum.
Today the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) reported that 116 political activists have been arbitrarily arrested between December 2018 and February 2019, for their participation or suspected involvement in the ongoing anti-government protests.
Following Friday prayers, security forces fired tear gas into a mosque in Omdurman to halt hundreds of people who went out in mass demonstrations after the sermons. Muslim clerics have denounced the attack on the mosque, as well as security forces’ tear gas attack inside the courtyard of a second mosque on Friday.
On the international level, Washington DC, London, Berlin, and Melbourne witnessed protests organised by hundreds of Sudanese abroad on Sunday, in support of the Sudanese revolution, which has entered its third month, demanding the overthrown El Bashir and his regime from power.
♦ More chikungunya cases in Port Sudan hospitals
February 15 – 2019 PORT SUDAN The number of incidences of chikungunya fever has increased in Port Sudan. Health centres have witnessed a spike in the number of new patients. Journalist Osman Hashim told Radio Dabanga that some health centres and hospitals are experiencing unprecedented overcrowding because of the sudden rise in the number of patients. Prices of intravenous pendulum solution have risen from SDG220 to SDG300 ($6.30).
The state government has failed to provide enough spray to eliminate mosquitoes that carry the disease, Hashim said. The Aedes aegypti mosquito, the same kind that spreads dengue and Zika virus, transmits the virus. Poor sanitation and contamination of drinking water are blamed for the spread of the mosquitoes.
Chikungunya (locally known as kankasha) is characterised by an abrupt onset of fever, frequently accompanied by joint pain, and there is no specific antiviral drug treatment for chikungunya. Most patients recover fully within weeks. A recent government report has shown more than 10,000 cases of chikungunya fever in Sudan’s Red Sea state over the past four months.
More news from Radio Dabanga:
February 19 – 2019 KHARTOUM The National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) banned the Sudanese El Baath newspaper from appearing on Monday. The editor-in-chief said that this was the ninth…
New bilateral talks between US delegation, Sudan
February 19 – 2019 KHARTOUM A senior US delegation headed by the special assistant to the president and senior advisor to Africa at the National Security Council, visited Khartoum for talks with…
Darfur student activist held in Sudan capital
February 18 – 2019 KHARTOUM On Sunday, members of Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) detained a Darfuri student activist from inside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs…
Hunger after WFP rations cut in Central Darfur
February 18 – 2019 ZALINGEI Displaced people living in the camps around Zalingei, capital of Central Darfur, complain of not receiving food rations since October 2018, and called on the World Food…
South Kordofan: 258 displaced families return to villages
February 18 – 2019 KADUGLI The Humanitarian Aid Commissioner in Sudan’s South Kordofan, Maj Gen Khidir El Taweel, has announced the voluntary return of 258 displaced families to El Sabouri and Um…
Sudan doctors: Protestors in hospital after NISS torture
February 17 – 2019 WAD MADANI The Sudanese Doctors Central Committee reported that a pharmacist and an engineer are suffering from renal failure as a result of torture at the offices of the National Intelligence…
Sudan pharmacists: Medicine import prices to spike
February 15 – 2019 KHARTOUM The import prices of medicines, of which the quantities have rapidly decreased over the past months, face another increase. The price hike is “a disaster”: “The government lets…
Camp demo against rapes, violations confronts North Darfur authorities
February 15 – 2019 ZAMZAM / EL GENEINA Yesterday, people in North Darfur’s Zamzam camp went out in a planned mass demonstration to demand that President Omar Al Bashir steps down and to speak out against…
Sudanese activist stranded on island wins human rights award
February 15 – 2019 GENEVA A Sudanese activist has won the 2019 Martin Ennals Award Laureate for human rights defenders. Abdelaziz Muhamat was selected by a jury of the world’s leading human rights…
BBC Africa Eye exposes Sudan govt ‘secret hit squads’
February 14 – 2019 SUDAN BBC Africa Eye has analysed dozens of dramatic videos filmed during the recent uprising, and spoken with witnesses who have survived torture. Some of these protestors speak of a…
Northern Sudan dam displaced strike for clean drinking water
February 13 – 2019 NORTHERN STATE On Tuesday, people who have been displaced by the building of the Merowe Dam and settled in Amri in the Northern State entered into an open-ended strike in protest against the…
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